"First" Picnic

Ben's been begging me for months now to go on a picnic, so today I dug the picnic basket out of a corner of the garage and obliged him. Sammy got to come too. And then of course, there was one of Ben's special friends. (Who he insisted needed to be in that first picture. I made sure to take a close-up of it just in case you couldn't quite make it out there on the basket with the boys.) We had one of Ben's favorite snacks: cucumbers and "quey-quey" dip. (Creamy cucumber dressing.) I thought the cheese-man sandwiches would be a big hit, but the boys were strangely reluctant to eat any parts of their men. Sammy especially had trouble deciding where to bite his guy and kept putting it up to his mouth and changing his mind. I had to bribe them with Smarties in the end to get them to eat my special treat sandwiches. Sigh. They were a bit of a wasted effort I guess. Where was Hannah during all of this? Taking her usual afternoon nap on her stomach. (Yes, I know that's not allowed, but it's the only way she'll sleep. You stay up with her all night long and nurse her every hour and we'll see how hard you'll try to make her sleep on her back during the day. The poor little thing was exhausted.)

First Snow

Yesterday we got our first snow of the year. I was pretty excited watching it fall in huge wet flakes all afternoon. I told my mom that we would need to go outside so we could catch some snowflakes on our tongues and make some snow angels. I had it all figured out. (I was also very disappointed to find out that just because there is snow outside doesn't mean it's Christmas. What a rip off.) Those big yummy looking snowflakes had stopped falling by the time Daddy finally took us outside, but there was plenty of snow for my snow angels.And there was just enough snow to make my first snowman. Isn't he cool?
And there was just enough snow for Daddy to teach me how to make snowballs. (Mommy is not sure how she feels about this new skill of mine, but I was pretty excited about it.)
Mommy is sure that she likes seeing me enjoy all that white stuff. I didn't used to like it as much as I do now. Remember this? (Sammy didn't used to like it as much either. See?)

Ben's First Day of Preschool

Ben had his very first day of school yesterday. He's growing up so fast! He was so excited to go to school to play with Mrs. H. His only concern was whether she would have any cars for him to play with.

She did!
There were lots of kids to play with too!
And crafts!
And a snack with his very own monkey cup!

Actually, it turned out to be much more overwhelming for him than I expected. I ended up being the parent helper so I was with him the whole time. He still cried twice. I'm not sure if having me there made it worse or better. He seemed a little unsure of all the kids and noise until he got into the gym. Then he perked right up and had to be told to use his inside voice with the rest of his little classmates. I think preschool is going to be really good for him and challenge him more than I expected. He doesn't usually take a nap in the afternoon anymore, but yesterday he crashed out when I got him home. He's still such a little guy and still my sweet little baby boy.

I love you buddy and I'm so proud of the fun, smart, kind, and capable boy you are growing up to be!

Catching Up

Mommy is WAY behind in the photo-blogging department so she's just gonna throw together a whole bunch of pictures that she likes and call it a post.

Cool dudes out on the town.

"Mater? Is that you?"

"Dat's the best tractor I ever seen! Dat's fun for da tractor!"

Ben's first corn on the cob.

Aaaaaaaaaaand... We're done.

Last night...

Mummy: Hey Ben. What are you doing in here?
Ben: I'n jumping on da bed!
Mummy: Wow! That's some pretty good jumping!
Ben: Yeah, I'n jumping pretty high hey? I'n jump... Hey! Who's dat?
Mummy: Where?
Ben: It's my shower!
Mummy: Your shower?
Ben: Yeah it's my shower.
Mummy: What? Where's the shower?
Ben: Right der! Right der!
Mummy: Ohhhhhhhhh! Your shadow! That's your shadow.
Ben: Yeah. It's my shadow. I'm Ben.
Mummy: (Laughing) Yes, you're Ben.
Ben: And Ben is in the shadow. (To shadow) Hi! I'm Ben. And dat's my ear. Right. Dat's my ear on there.
Mummy: Does the shadow have an ear?
Ben: Yeah. I'n waving my arms.
Mummy: Ho. Good waving.
Ben: And I'n jumping on the bed. Right.

No guy? No guy!

Mommy took me to another place with lots of chairs with people waiting in them today. I knew right away what it was. It was one of those places where there are guys who do stuff to you no matter how hard you cry. At first I thought maybe this one wouldn't be too bad. Mommy let me play with a house and some little guys...
But then she took me into a little room, like she always does, and there was a guy I don't know and he looked in my mouth. I didn't like it.
She took me to the store after and bought me a little guy with a tricycle and wagon. I liked that.

Thanks Auntie Susan!

I went to my very first movie on Daddy's birthday. We saw Cars. Thanks to Auntie Susan my outfit matched the movie.

At Kinsmen Park

"Choo choooooo! Itsa black. Engine."

"Weddy set go. Hurry up chain. Weddy. Set. Goooo!"

"Ina red chain!"

"Ona wheel? Ona sing? Ona big ... red ... wheel ... ... sing?

He's got chakin.

" ... ... ... ..."

The Greatest Show On Earth!

Mommy and Daddy took me to the circus. Mommy said if some of the money didn't go to charity she would feel ripped off, but I thought it was worth every penny! (It cost more than "tenty bux" just to get in the door. Even with those coupon things Mommy got at Walmart.)
There were big white puppies there. Mommy says they were horses, but she's wasn't fooling me. Those things were puppies for sure.
I had some candy. At first I thought this was another one of Mommy's crazy jokes. Who knew they could make candy that feels like the tops of those fuzzy sticks Mommy puts in my ears sometimes? Not me.
We saw a great big "omelet" too. I talked about it for days afterwards and Mommy kept giving me these strange "What are you talking about?" looks. It wasn't till I pointed one out before bed one night while we were reading my Noah's Ark story book that she finally caught my meaning. She's a little slow sometimes.

Some Firsts

My first bath with Samuel... "Ah Samooel? Ina bass?"

My first afternoon in the sandbox... "Ah shubble! Ah diggin!"

My first slurpie of my very own... "Ah suppie! Open ah jink?"

Ah Hoe Doo?

Mommy and Daddy told me I was going to have a brother yesterday. But they didn't tell me that he was going to be so cool! Here, look!

And he gave me this awesome present! (He's so cool!)

I love my baby brother!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Yesterday Mommy and I woke up to some beautiful snow! I was so excited when whe showed me what was waiting outside the window! Mommy got me all dressed in a snowsuit and some dumb boots and we went outside for a walk. The snow was pretty deep though, and after a while the way it got all bunched around my feet made me mad. If Mommy wasn't fast enough to make me a path to walk on I cried.

It snowed ALL DAY! Great big fluffy flakes! By the time Daddy got home the snow was even deeper. Mommy put me back in the same spot to measure how much more snow fell... I don't know why she does stuff like that...

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My First Post!

Hi everyone! My mommy has fallen REALLY far behind on my Ben updates. She is getting really frustrated with how long it takes to make them on Microsoft Word. She says she sent out an update a couple of weeks ago, but no one got it... I think she's pretty much given up on the whole email update thing! She decided to copy her cousin Travis and give me a place online to tell you stuff and show you pictures!

For a while she will have to put up pictures and stories that she meant to send out over the summer and never got around to, so you can get all caught up! I live a pretty exciting life so prepare yourself for some pretty exciting posts!

I can't talk yet, but Mommy knows what to say... She says she will let me type a bit at the end of every post... And once I start talking a bit more she can tell you all the things I have to say. Right now I mostly just say things like: apple, hi, Momma, Daddy, kitty, up, cracker, auntie, and wa do do? Anyways, welcome to the world of BENTRON... More than meets the eye! BENTRON... Robot in disguise!

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